Stars
by Cooliceprincess
Summary: Sometimes, Draco Malfoy doesn't want to be the Malfoy family heir, he doesn't want to be Harry Potter's arch-nemesis, he doesn't want to be what people see in him, a cold person, a deceiver, a git, or a magnificent person. He just want to be simply Draco, to be himself. A series of stories centering around Draco Malfoy and his (later) wife, Astoria Greengrass.
1. Chapter 1

Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling

* * *

The first time Draco Malfoy met Astoria Greengrass, they were in Hogwarts' grand library. she was standing to grab a book and he was on his way to do his potions homework. He bumped straight to her, dropping all of his things and she fell with the book she wanted to borrow landing painfully on top of her head.

"Watch where you're going!" He sneered. Astoria glared at him, not happy at his attitude at all.

"Me? I was standing here motionless! Shouldn't I be the one who said that?!"

Draco couldn't say anything in retort and Astoria left him behind, clutching the book close to her chest with her nose held high. Draco was rendered speechless by a girl two years below him. Slowly Draco collected his fallen essay. He was about to leave when he saw something. A silver brooch. It's broken though. Maybe it broke when it fell, or it might be broken to begin with, Draco couldn't tell. But the pieces are still there. He can fix it. And then he can return it to the insignificant girl...

Why does he want to return it? Usually he'll just take it for himself or throw it away.

And then his grey eyes are drawn to his essays again and all thoughts of the brooch is shoved into a tiny box and pushed to the very back of his mind. Even when he's Snape's star student, the potions master would give him a sharp glare if he doesn't do his homework. And Snape's glare is **scary**. He dropped the brooch and its broken pieces into his pocket and proceed to search for some reference books.

* * *

"Reparo." Draco lazily pointed his wand to the brooch. Some of the pieces mend itself, but one part of the brooch lay motionless.

"Hm?" Draco spun the one piece that stubbornly refused to re-attach itself to the brooch between his fingers. He felt a prickling sensation whenever that piece touched his skin. It feels odd to the touch. It doesn't happen with the other broken parts.

"Weird." He muttered. Maybe he should ask Snape about it?

"What's weird, Draco?" Blaise Zabini asked, not looking up from the essay he's writing.

"Nothing." The Malfoy family's successor said automatically.

"Hey, you have to work on your essay, Draco. Professor Snape won't punish us in front of the others, but he'll have our heads later." Zabini frowned when he spotted Draco fiddling the brooch.

"Yeah, I know." Draco dipped his quill to the ink and started writing. The brooch lay in his pocket, forgotten once more. He didn't see Astoria stealing glances at him from the other side of the common room, frowning.

"What's wrong, Ash?" Her friend Emily asked, noticing her odd behavior.

"Nothing important, Em," Astoria instantly put her attention back to the charms book she was reading. "I was just...distracted."

"Oh," Emily smiled and offered her some fudge.

* * *

While Astoria doesn't really think highly of muggles, she followed muggle studies, anyway. Just to prove how much better pure-blood wizards are. She listened as the Professor ranted about this and that with increasing boredom. She raised an eyebrow when Emily snored in the middle of the class, completely ignoring the Professor and instead let herself drown in the ocean of dreams. Barely managing to contain her laughter, Astoria pressed her fingers to her lips in hopes the urge to giggle would disappear. Oh, she loved Emily when she does that to someone other than her.

Once the class is over, Astoria whispered the magic words to wake her friend up, "There's a mountain of sweets sent to you by Zabini."

Emily, who highly admires Blaise and adored sweets even more, shot up in a blink of an eye, looking ecstatic. But then she noticed how Astoria barely contained her laughter.

"Ash, it's not funny!" Emily frowns.

"Yes, it is." Astoria snorted.

"Oh, bother." Emily pouts and sulk as they made their way to Slytherin's common room. Astoria put her giggles to a stop, but she couldn't entirely erase the amused smile that graced her lips. Emily did not sulk for long. The instant Astoria offered her some chocolate frogs, she brightened up and forgave her.

On her way to their next class, Astoria bumped to none other than Draco Malfoy. The older boy glanced at her discreetly. For a moment their eyes met, inspecting each other curiously. And then Draco turned away, almost as if he avoided gazing at her. With puzzlement, Astoria watched his retreating figure.

"Ash? Helloooo! Earth to Astoria!" Emily shook her shoulder

"Hm? Yeah, what is it?" Astoria snapped her attention back to her friend.

"You've been weird Ash. You zoned out a lot, and it's always when Malfoy's...around..." Emily paused. And then a mischievous grin bloomed on her face.

"W-what?" Astoria is suspicious of what Emily is thinking about.

"You like him!" Emily yelled triumphantly.

"Huh? What are you-"

"You like him! That's why you're so distracted! You like Dra-Hmph!" Astoria muffled her friend. Emily got the wrong idea. She doesn't like Draco Malfoy. He just happen to keep her brooch with him, and she wants it back. But then the older teen just had to make it difficult by acting strange around her. She glared at Emily as she felt other students sent her weird looks.

"I certainly do not. And I **don't** appreciate you shouting false information in the middle of the corridor." Astoria hissed irately. But Emily is ecstatic, and she wouldn't stop bothering her until the end of the day, in which she's stuck working on the piles of homework the Professors hand them. Astoria had finished hers earlier, and is lazing around with a delicious mug of chocolate in her hands.

"Greengrass," Astoria glanced to the one who called her and is astounded when she saw Draco Malfoy.

"Malfoy," She greeted back.

"You drop something." Draco handed her her silver brooch, smooth and flawless, perfectly mended. She stared at it with wonder. One part of it had been hit by a curse, and it shouldn't be possible for a third year student to fix it.

"How did you-? It's been broken for ages!"

Draco had a small scowl on his face. "A simple thank you would suffice."

"Right...thanks, Malfoy." She hesitantly shake his larger hand, wondering if he's always this remarkable. She didn't even ask him to fix it, yet he did.

"I...never mind." And he left. The flicker of hesitation and something else in his cold grey eyes made Astoria curious. Malfoy is, unless in the presence of Harry Potter, a mostly cool and composed person. He do not hesitate in many things.

"Malfoy!" Draco looked at her in puzzlement, one pale eyebrow raised. She handed him back the brooch. It was the first gift she ever received from her mother, and the last. She honestly treasured it, and she was devastated when it was broken. One of the reasons she kept hanging around the library was to find a spell to fix it. This is not the easiest thing for her to do. But she couldn't possibly think of anything else to return the huge favor. It's a priceless thing for her. "You can have it."

"I took my time finding a way to fix it and bring it back to you, and you just gave it to me?" He asked cynically. "How very thoughtful of you."

She huffed. "I appreciate your work, and that's why I gave it to you. It...it means a lot to me."

Just for a while his cold eyes soften and he twirled the brooch in is hand. Astoria silently fidgeted and hoped Emily's slacking jaw didn't go any wider and that she should stop staring if she couldn't take it.

"I'll take it, then, _Astoria_." There's a certain tone in his voice that made her skin crawl while butterflies flew in her stomach at the same time.

When Malfoy turn away to go to the boys' dorm, Astoria sank to her seat and pondered what get to her that made her give the brooch to him, why she was at loss for words (something that never happened before), why was she trembling and why won't Emily stop smiling?

"Oooh, Ash, I take it someone's happy to talk to her crush~!"

That night, Astoria didn't share her chocolate cauldron with Emily and ate all of it right in front of her as a form of torture.

To Be Continued

* * *

 **A/N :** **Hey there, lovelies! I just got a streak of idea about Malfoy and decided to write it! I hope you like it. I'll try to make Draco more in-character, since he's pretty much a git at the time and not yet have his character developed. I'll also try to make Astoria more Slytherin-like. Hey, she's raised in a pure-blood family who thinks they're better than anyone else, so she won't be Muggle-tolerant yet. I've been thinking how I should make her look, since Rowling didn't describe her. So I decided to look at the movie and give her my own self-made characteristics.**

 **I apologize if my English is mishmash-ed between American and British. I try to use British for this fic, but seriously, I still have trouble differentiating them while writing (though I can identify them just fine when reading).**

 **Please read and review.**

 **Well, that's all, dear readers. Until next chapter!**


	2. Chapter 2

For Draco, everything had been easy from the moment he was born. Had he ever wished for anything, all he had to do was ask (or whine). His powerful father, Lucius Malfoy, will always grant his wishes be it big (like bribing Slytherin's Quiditch Team to let him in) or small. His mom adored him, his father was proud of him, Professor Snape labled him his star student the moment he lay eyes on him. But Draco never got one thing: recognition of his skill.

Everything he had and received, none of it were trophies of some great achievement. All were mere gifts or results of deceit and fraud. Nothing he actually done himself. Including how he got Crabbe and Goyle's loyalty (it had been due to their stupidity).

But for once, he did something entirely on his own, for someone he barely known. (He spent quite a long time in the library looking for an enhanced version of 'reparo'). And then he received payment (sort off) for his good job. He was thankful for it, for Astoria too, more than he knew himself. It wasn't until he was older than he realized this.

Each time he looked at Astoria Greengrass, a spike of respect and a tint of annoyance bloomed in him. Even though she's two years younger than he is, he is well aware she can wrap him around her slender fingers without him realizing. He doesn't like that. It's him that's suppose to wrap people around his fingers.

He recently remembered that the brooch incident was not he first time he met Astoria. There was a ball of pure-blood families. She was there, with her older sister, Daphne, and their father. They were wearing their best dress and smiled to the adults with well-trained mask, he remembered. Lucius had told him to get to know them, for they could be good allies for their family. Even as a young boy, Draco Malfoy understood what it would eventually lead to; arranged marriage. He would be engaged with one of them to form family ties and expand the riches of the Malfoys.

He knew Lucius and Narcissa had looked to Daphne while they talked of this. As a child, he was rather rebellious, refusing to be told what to do (even if it's just implied) so he purposely asked Astoria to dance with him instead just to irk his parents. (She refused him, by the way, with her nose held high and a perfectly graceful dislike in her eyes. He started hating her then, and thought less of Daphne, whom he thinks is a bit shallow, so his parents luckily canceled that arrangement before it's even made).

That was a long time ago, when he was ten. He almost forgot about it until the brooch incident happened. Despite the pseudo-friendship he made with Astoria, Draco barely made any interaction with her afterwards. Only constant nods and small, curt acknowledgement exchanged in the hallways. He also noticed she is actually kind of irritating. Seriously, where did the nice girl side go? Is the 'nervous and fidgeting girl' is just a side of her that surfaced temporarily due to the loss of her brooch? Possibly. Now, Draco can only see a lioness under a bunny skin.

Rather than the ever-unpredictable Astoria, Pansy Parkinson is dominating his attention most of the time. Well, Pansy is pretty and, frankly, easy to deal with. He doesn't even need to be a good deceiver to fool her. He can use her as much as he wanted. Even Crabbe and Goyle can somewhat detect his lies, yet Pansy accepted all of it in a stride with no suspicions whatsoever. He's not sure if it's stupidity or blind loyalty (either one's idiotic).

And then came the incident with the freaking Hippogriff. His arm was not **that** badly injured, but Draco just had to make it hard for the giant-hybrid, even though deep down he could hear a voice telling him it's his own fault (his little conscience liked to remind him he's a good person somewhere down there, but he ignored it long ago and decided to be bad). Anyway, it's a chance he wouldn't miss anytime in his life. But of course, just as any mischief, it barely has a meaning.

As he lay lonely in the hospital wing, Crabbe and Goyle long gone, Blaise only came for a short while to bid him a stiff goodnight, and Pansy is finally ushered out by Madam Pomfrey, he has all the time in the world to think. His satisfaction had been childish and temporary. Besides, Potter is still there, plotting to ruin his fun one way or another. Somehow Draco knew he would lose. He always did when it comes to Harry Potter. Everything went downhill for Draco ever since he met the stupid kid. Sighing and rubbing his eyes with his good hand, Draco wondered since when he's become the angst-y and thoughtful type.

 _Since Astoria_ , his mind told him. She's smart, Draco can tell from those green eyes of hers that is annoyingly similar with Potter's. (Not the colour, no, her eyes are darker. But there's a gleam in it that very much reminded Draco of the dark-haired kid). Good thing the similarity stops there.

Oh,well. He'll keep trying. He wanted a nice settle of the scores with Potter (the boy earn too much credit than he deserves, in his opinion). He just want to have one, true, satisfying win over Potter. That's all. An entirely egotistical thing, but he's not a Malfoy without his ego.

"I see you're all patched up."

He jolted upright on his bed, **almost** screaming in a very undignified way, and pinned his gaze on Astoria's calm and serene (he swore there's an evil glint in her eyes) face.

"Greengrass," He sneered with lowered voice. "I don't know you're the type to break the curfew."

"I never knew you're the type to gain attention by purposely making yourself looking pathetic."

Damn smarty-pants. "I'd like to see you cope with it if it were you, _**Astoria**_." Her name rolled down his tongue naturally, laced with venom. She only shrugged.

"I wouldn't let myself look pathetic."

"Yeah? Prove it."

"Alright, someday. It's a promise, _**Draco**_ ," His name sounded sweet and melodic in her voice, overly sugarcoated yet dripping with sarcasm at a point it drives him crazy with irritation. It infuriated him that an 11 year old can rile him up easily, but that's just the way Astoria is. She could make him lose his cool when she was only eight after all (the memory of the stupid ball drifted to his mind).

Funny how he respected her blood status and intelligence, yet he resent her as much as Potter. Okay, maybe not that much. He hate her just a teeny-tiny bit less than Potter.

...Fine, he liked her much more than Potter. Happy?

"I'll be going now. See you tomorrow, Draco." her tone is lighter, and he stared with wonder when she sneaked around stealthily like a snake, darting from shadow to shadow. She acted like a Griffindor sometimes, rebeling around like that. He was surprised a noble-birth like her could even manage that kind of feat. Even Draco didn't sneak around too often (he was only willing to do it if it involved getting Potter into trouble). With that attitude of hers, she might blend in very well with the _Griffindorks_.

He sighed and buried his head into his pillow, intent on sleeping. And sleep he did.

To Be Continued

 **Phew. Finally an update after a looong hiatus. And it wasn't even a particularly good chapter, or a long one for the matter. Am I writing the plot line too quickly?**

 **Anyway, I apologize for the long wait and the (probably) disappointing update to those who followed and favorited this story. Unfortunately my updates won't be frequent, so please be prepared to wait if you wish to still follow the story. I have no excuse for my laziness.**


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